Pastor's Corner - Carlos A. Ramos, Jr.

***Born Again***

Born Again (gennethe anothen) Gk-John 3:3, 2 Corinthians 5:17

In John 3:3-4 Yeshua says to Nakidimon (Nicodemus), :Unless a person is born again from above, he cannot see the Kingdom of God." Nakidimon responds, "How can a man be born when he is old?" What confused him was how a man could be born again when he reached the age of senior citizen and had already met the Pharise requirements to be "born again." There were six (6) ways that one could be "born again" in Pharisaic Judaism. Nakidimon was already qualified in four of those ways, and the other two would have been impossible for him to fulfill, Fifth (5) (a Gentile was said to be :born again: if he converted to Judaism or Sixth (6) was crowned as king), The four (4) ways in which Nakidimon did meet the criteria follow, First (1), when a Jewish boy becomes bar mitzvah at thirteen, he is aid to be "born again" Since Nakidimon was well beyond the age of thirteen, he said he had already experienced his bar mitzvah and was thus already "born again" in that way. A second (2) way was by marriage. When a Jewish man married he was said to be "born again." A member of the Sanhedrin must be married, so he could not be "born again" again in this way since he was already a member of the Sanhedrin. Third (3), a Jew could be "born again" when ordained as a rabbi. Since Yeshua called Nakidimon a "teacher" (rabbi means teacher), he could not be re-ordained. Fourth (4)The head of a rabbinical school. In John 3:10 Yeshua said to Nakidimon that he "held the office of teacher in Israel," which meant he was already head of a rabbinical school. Nakidimon had gone through every process available in Judaism to being :born again." The only way he could be "born again" at his age was to renter his mothers womb and start the process all over again (John 3:4), which was absurd and confusing to Nakidimon. This discussion gave Yeshua the opportunity to explain some spiritual truths to this already "born again" teacher of Isra'el, primarily that he still needed to be spiritually "born again."

Bible Study - Understanding God's Plan for the Ages.

One of the affirmations that Satan is a defeated enemy -is God's prophetic plan for the second coming of Jesus Christ.